


Fly Me to The Moon

by Stratagem



Series: The Space Cases [1]
Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Baby Names, F/M, Family Fluff, Post-Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 06:37:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8522449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stratagem/pseuds/Stratagem
Summary: Post-mission, Chris and Beth discuss baby names. Fluffiness abounding.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I had this posted on AO3 a long time ago, but I deleted it when I took a break from the website. Now it's back! ^_^
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own The Martian!

"We're not naming this baby Markina."

"What?"

"No Markina baby. Just saying."

Chris looked up from the news site on his tablet, one eyebrow raised as he glanced over at his fiancé. Beth had her laptop resting on top of her baby bump while she scrolled over a page and a frown creased her forehead.

"If you told me you wanted to name the baby Markina, I'd have to send you in for a psych eval." He shifted on the couch, moving closer to her. "What brought that up, anyways?"

"Did you know that there are at least five major online polls about what we should call the baby?" Beth said, turning her laptop toward him, "And half of them have Star Child in the lead. But this one here has Markina up near the top, too."

Chris snorted. "He'd love that." He looked down the list, amused at most of the outlandish names. Most of them were girls names, mainly because someone had let it leak that the baby was going to be a girl. Neither of them really wanted a lot of the details of this pregnancy going public, especially because it was somewhat high profile anyways. While Mark was the real superstar out of their group, practically everyone on the planet right now seemed to know their names. They were being hailed as heroes, but right now they were just trying to figure out how to be a couple and good future parents.

"Some of these aren't terrible," he said, pointing at one of the suggestions, "I sort of like Astra."

"Really?" Beth's nose wrinkled. "It reminds me of the Jetsons."

"That was Astro, not Astra." He grinned at her. "Ruh roh."

"It still sounds similar." She scooted back into the corner of the couch and pulled the laptop back into her lap before tossing her feet over into his lap. Almost absently he started rubbing her feet.

"We do need to actually consider names." So far they had just been tossing names back and forth playfully without offering any real ideas. Unless Beth actually thought they should name the baby Seven of Nine or Samus. Doubtful.

Beth's eyes were back on her computer. "I don't want her name to be obnoxiously spacey. Or fancy. Or pretentious. Or too traditional."

That was a long list. "Hey, I don't think Star Child sounds pretentious at all," he said, drawing out the 'a' in 'all.' He squeezed one of her big toes and then wiggled it. "Seriously, what's a real name you would actually like?"

"I don't know," she said, pushing her foot against his hand, "Something short. Simple. Like Molly."

"My sister had that doll," he said, "One of the American Girl dolls, right?"

"One of the best ones." She smiled. "But now that you've made me think of a doll, we can't name her Molly."

Chris smirked a little. "Okay, so let's toss out some other names. I like ones that sound sort of edgy or sort of gender neutral, like Sam or River." He hesitated, but he wasn't going to keep what he was actually thinking of. Not when it was something as important as their future child's name. "But then again, I actually wouldn't mind if we named her something a little space related."

Immediately Beth shot him a frown. "But I said not spacey."

He held up his hands. "Not obnoxiously spacey, though. I promise! Just something a little space-related, if we could both decide on something we liked."

Beth seemed to consider the idea for a long moment before she nodded. "Fine, but we both have to agree on it." Her fingers flew across the keyboard.

"Looking up space names?" Chris drew an invisible circle on her ankle with his pointer finger.

"No, just pulling up a document so I can write a list." She peeked over the laptop at him. "I like Sally."

"Mmm, like Sally Ride. I like it. Sneakily spacey."

"But not sneaky enough." She shifted again, this time sitting up cross-legged. "I don't want the whole space thing to hang over her for her whole life."

"Well, it's going to follow her to some degree, we can't help that." Chris let his leg rest against hers, trying to be reassuring through touch. "But luckily after a few years, less people will be interested in the story and it'll get easier."

"Yeah," Beth huffed, one hand on her stomach as she readjusted the computer, "But we're not naming her Andromeda or Vega or anything. Okay?"

"Sure, no problem," he said with a smile. "And it doesn't have to remind anyone else of space. Maybe just us, for the most part."

"How about Sugar Bomb?" Beth said, impish mischief in her eyes. Ah, yes, the infamous sugar bomb.

"Oh, now I like that," Chris said with fake sincerity, "We'll name her after our greatest feats. So, like Sugar Bomb Spacewalker Beck of Mars."

Beth laughed. "That sounds badass."

Chris leaned over and winked up at Beth before he spoke to her stomach. "How about it, Sugar Bomb? Going to be a total badass like your mom?"

"She just kicked, so I think we have a winner," Beth teased, "I sort of like Cassie or Lyra. For the constellations."

"Yeah, those could work," Chris said, leaning back into the cushions. "Or maybe Gemma? For Gemini?"

Beth suddenly smirked. "Wait. I think I might have one that people won't guess where we got it from right off the bat." She started clicking away on her laptop, and when Chris tried to peek, he got a swat on the shoulder. After a few moments, she turned the computer back toward him. This time is displayed the image of a multi-colored moon covered in little pockmarks.

"Callisto?" Chris asked. He knew it was Beth's favorite moon, mainly because of the idea that it could be turned into an exploration station where new expeditions could be launched from. It was a pretty cool idea when you thought about it.

"No, we could shorten it to Callie," she said, flashing him a smile, "No one would automatically think Callisto when they heard the name Callie, but we would know it was space-ish. And it's sort of edgy, maybe?"

Callie. Callie Beck. Chris grinned and reached out to run his fingers through Beth's hair before leaning over to kiss her. "It's perfect."


End file.
